Sephiroth couldn't help but recall the mocking phrase from his past life: "Even dogs don't eat the Mera Mera no Mi."
The words echoed in his mind, sharp and dismissive. Akainu's declaration that the Mera Mera no Mi's flames were mere ordinary fire, while his magma could burn even flames, had cemented the fruit's reputation as inferior. Compared to the Magma Fruit, the Mera Mera no Mi seemed like a joke.
As someone with a scientific mindset, Sephiroth had been stunned when he first heard this claim. It felt like a mental door had slammed shut on his understanding, leaving him utterly baffled.
Determined to prove the Mera Mera no Mi's worth, he fused it with the Nether Flame Blade and set out to test its limits.
Using high-precision instruments in his lab, he measured the flame temperatures produced by the Nether Flame Blade under normal conditions. The results fluctuated between 84.5°C and 1000°C—a far cry from the natural magma temperatures of 900°C to 1400°C in the One Piece world.
On paper, the Magma Fruit's superiority was undeniable. Its minimum temperature nearly matched the Mera Mera no Mi's maximum. No wonder Ace had met his end in the original timeline.
But Sephiroth wasn't ready to concede.
When he infused Armament Haki into the Mera Mera no Mi's flames, something extraordinary happened. The flame temperature increased dramatically, scaling with the amount of Haki he poured in. At one point, without considering his Haki consumption, he pushed the temperature past ten thousand degrees.
The discovery was a revelation. If the fruit itself fell short, Haki could bridge the gap.
"Teacher Kaido was right," Sephiroth mused. "Only Haki can surpass everything."
This experiment revealed a deeper truth about the Mera Mera no Mi. Its ability wasn't just about creating flames—it was about burning. Different mediums produced flames with varying temperatures and effects.
What if he used pure Armament Haki as fuel? The idea was bold, but the Haki consumption was staggering. For a long time, it remained a theoretical concept, impossible to apply in combat.
That changed after he underwent the Immortality Surgery. With an endless well of life force at his disposal, he could finally unleash the Mera Mera no Mi's true potential.
"Come on! Burn completely!" he roared, his voice echoing into the heavens.
Dark red Conqueror's Haki enveloped his body, shielding his internal organs. He channeled his inexhaustible life force into the butcher knife, converting it into surging Armament Haki, which flowed back into his body and onto the Nether Flame Blade.
Boom!
A torrent of pitch-black flames erupted from the blade, engulfing him entirely. The heat was overwhelming. Even with Conqueror's Haki protecting him and a deliberate temperature gradient from outer to inner layers, the ten-thousand-degree inferno scorched his skin and organs. The surrounding space warped and distorted under the intense heat.
Without the Vampire Fruit's super-regeneration, healing the burns as they formed, this experiment would have been suicidal. Yet even with his rapid healing, he could only endure this state for three minutes at most. Any longer, and his Conqueror's Haki would falter, leaving him to be consumed by the flames.
Still, three minutes was enough.
In this state of intensely burning Armament Haki, both his defense and attack power broke their original limits, and even a power like Haoshoku Haki was simply not enough against him.
Swish!
Red-Haired Shanks was the first to rush before him, raising his renowned sword Griffin, and once again unleashed a Divine Avoidance slash toward him.
The dark red Conqueror's Haki shockwave struck again, but Sephiroth didn't dodge at all; instead, he directly met it head-on.
The next moment. Under Imu's incredibly shocked gaze, the Conqueror's Haki shockwave unleashed by Red-Haired Shanks, upon touching the outer layer of black flames on Sephiroth's body, instantly evaporated and dissipated into the air, like steam meeting fire.
After colliding with and dispersing Divine Avoidance, Sephiroth directly swung the butcher knife in his hand toward Red-Haired Shanks, who immediately raised his renowned sword Griffin to block.
However...
Swish-!
Like a hot knife through butter, the butcher knife, carrying incredibly high temperatures and intensely burning Armament Haki, directly sliced through the renowned sword Griffin in one strike, and also cleaved Red-Haired Shanks into two halves.
Bang-!
Red-Haired Shanks's cleaved body instantly burst into large clouds of white smoke, directly transforming into a green leaf split into two halves.
After instantly slicing apart Red-Haired Shanks's illusion with one strike, Sephiroth didn't stop there; he immediately used the Amplify-Amplify Fruit ability to increase his speed by a hundredfold.
Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!...
Sephiroth's figure darted and weaved through the air, leaving behind rings of white sonic boom clouds as he charged toward the other enemies.
Due to his excessive speed, Sephiroth's eyes couldn't react in time, so he could only lock onto the enemy's position using Observation Haki before charging forward and delivering a slash, completely disregarding whether the opponent could parry or block.
Seeing this situation, Imu quickly flapped the wings on his back, wanting to get away from Sephiroth, this god of slaughter.
But...
In the face of absolute speed, he didn't even have a chance to escape.
The next moment. Sephiroth's body appeared like a ghost, suddenly showing up on Imu's escape path, forcing the latter to grit his teeth and prepare to fight.
However...
Before he could even raise his fist to block, Sephiroth had already swung the butcher knife in his hand, delivering a seemingly unremarkable diagonal slash that heavily struck his chest.
Boom-!
Even though Imu had protected his body with Haoshoku, under the opponent's fiercely burning Armament Haki, his defense was as fragile as paper, completely unable to withstand the blow.
The blade cut through the dragon scales on Imu's chest without any resistance, and the pitch-black Haki flames attached to the blade instantly burned his flesh and internal organs into charcoal.
Wah-!
Struck by this single slash, Imu immediately coughed up a large mouthful of blood, his eyes rolled back, and he instantly lost consciousness, reverting from his hybrid form, his body plunging straight down from the air and heavily hitting the ground.
"Lord Imu!!!" x4
The four Gorosei, including Nasjuro Saint, who were entangled in a fight with the Seraphim, simultaneously let out cries of alarm upon seeing Imu defeated. They wanted to go check on Imu's injuries, but the Seraphim pressed on relentlessly, making it impossible for them to break free.
On the other side, the several illusions created by Redfield were all sliced apart by Sephiroth within just a few seconds, turning back into leaves.
Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Redfield quickly wrote the name "Marshall D. Teach" on a leaf, preparing to use Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit ability to nullify Sephiroth's Devil Fruit ability.
However...
Redfield flicked the green leaf into the air, fingers already moving to activate Paton's ability—but Sephiroth moved faster.
A black blur streaked across the battlefield as the Nether Flame Blade flashed in his left hand. The leaf crisped to ash midair, its illusionary potential extinguished before it could manifest.
Steel rang against steel as Sephiroth's butcher knife came down in a lethal arc. Redfield barely managed to stow his pen and twist aside. The air screamed with each successive slash, blade trails leaving afterimages of superheated wind.
Dozens of attacks rained down in seconds, yet Redfield's preternatural Observation Haki mapped every fluctuation in Sephiroth's aura. He flowed between the strikes like smoke, untouched despite the onslaught.
The telltale black flames of Armament Haki left Sephiroth no room to mask his presence with Haoshoku.
Even amplified hundreds of times by his Devil Fruit, Sephiroth's movements remained transparent to a master observer. Against the legendary Red-Haired Shanks—whose Haki perception bordered on precognition—raw speed alone wouldn't secure victory. If Shanks committed to evasion, this could become a battle of endurance Sephiroth couldn't win within his three-minute window.
The realization struck mid-swing. Sephiroth disengaged his blazing Haki, the obsidian flames winking out across his body. As he dialed his speed back to quadruple normal, his Haoshoku energy began its subtle work, weaving an imperceptible shroud around his presence.
Shanks's eyes widened at the sudden void in his senses. Muscle memory screamed for distance, but Sephiroth's adjusted tempo still outpaced thought. Without Haki-assisted foresight, the older man found himself hard-pressed to counter.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The bat-handled umbrella became a desperate shield, barely deflecting the storm of attacks. But constant defense breeds mistakes. Age finally betrayed Shanks—a fractional delay in his stance, the slightest opening in his guard.
Sephiroth's blade found the gap.
A crimson arc flashed toward exposed flesh, aimed to cleave neck from shoulders.
"Boss, behind you!"
White smoke exploded from Shanks's pocket as the pen transformed midair. A pink-cloaked raccoon dog materialized, throwing itself into the blade's path.
"No—!" Shanks's roar tore from his throat, arms outstretched to intercept.
Too slow.
The butcher knife parted fur and flesh without resistance, its momentum carrying through to slice clean through Shanks's throat.
Sephiroth exhaled as two bodies hit the ground. Fortune had favored him—Shanks's aged body couldn't match its former glory. Had Paton's Mythical Zoan abilities entered the fray properly, the fight might have dragged on dangerously.
With a practiced motion, he cleaved open a spatial rift. His free hand emerged from the void clutching an apple retrieved from Sabaody's underground labs. Tendrils of blood rose from Paton's corpse, coiling around the fruit's surface. Within seconds, the apple morphed into a gnarled, raccoon-dog-shaped Devil Fruit.
Another spatial tear swallowed the prize for later processing. The battlefield fell silent save for the crackle of dying flames.
......
Blood trickled from Imu's mouth as he lay sprawled across the ground. His eyelids fluttered weakly, pupils dilating as his breathing grew shallow. Sephiroth's slash had cleaved through his chest, charring most of his internal organs beyond recognition.
Even with his Mythical Zoan abilities and formidable vitality, such catastrophic injuries left no hope of survival.
Sephiroth loomed over him, butcher knife in hand, watching the dying man with icy detachment.
"Any last words?"
Imu's body shuddered with sudden effort. Coughing up thick blood, he somehow forced himself upright on trembling limbs. He lifted his chin with what little strength remained, voice barely audible:
"Cough—! The dragon slayer... always becomes the butcher's blade... You'll... share my fate..."
"Is that all?"
The crimson blade flashed.
Sephiroth's swing severed Imu's neck cleanly. The head bounced twice before rolling to a stop, while the body crumpled like a puppet with cut strings.
Thus fell the master of the Empty Throne—the shadow ruler who'd controlled the World Government for eight centuries.
"Imu-sama!"
Four voices cried out in unison. The Gorosei stared in horrified fury, but the Seraphim held them fast, rendering them helpless spectators.
"Don't rush," Sephiroth said, advancing with knife in hand. "You'll join him shortly."
Working in tandem with the Seraphim, he dispatched the four elders as effortlessly as chopping vegetables. Their throats opened with barely a struggle.
Without pause, he moved toward Kuma's battle with Saint Saturn. A few casual slashes from Sephiroth gave Kuma the opening he needed to finish his old nemesis.
"Done."
Sheathing his blade, Sephiroth surveyed Saturn's thoroughly lifeless corpse before dispelling the barrier enclosing the island. The waiting Marine and Umbrella forces swarmed the battlefield immediately.
For holdouts like Bullet, Doflamingo, and Blackbeard, Sephiroth offered no speeches—just a wave of his hand to signal the overwhelming assault. When Hawkeye, Luffy, and Ace protested the unfair tactics, he ignored them completely. Why duel when you could crush them?
The Battle of Delta Island concluded without suspense. Bullet, Teach, Doflamingo—all executed. Only a handful of pirates survived to be captured.
......
By morning, the World Economic News presses ran red-hot, trumpeting the Marines' decisive victory. The simultaneous downfall of two Emperors—Doflamingo and Blackbeard—sent shockwaves across the globe.
Sephiroth wasted no time issuing his ultimatum to the Big Mom Pirates: surrender and be conscripted, or face total war.
Ultimately, Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, pressured by the overwhelming situation, could only "willingly" offer Totto Land to the World Government as a directly governed territory—securing honorary royal titles for the Charlotte Family in exchange.
The Marine forces pressed their advantage relentlessly. Utilizing advanced aircraft developed by the Umbrella Corporation, they launched lightning strikes across the New World and West Blue. Within weeks, they dismantled the remnants of both Blackbeard's and Doflamingo's fleets.
Dozens of formerly pirate-controlled nations fell under World Government jurisdiction, their flags replaced with the celestial standard.
The balance of power shifted irrevocably. The Four Emperors' territories collapsed like sandcastles against the tide. Pirate forces suffered losses beyond anything recorded in history—whole armadas reduced to driftwood and rumors.
Then came the announcement that shook the world.
Barely three weeks after Delta Island's fall, government broadcasts revealed the coordinates to Laugh Tale. Even more shocking? They mass-produced permanent Log Poses pointing directly to the legendary island, selling them for a paltry thousand Berries each.
"For those lacking navigational skills," the cheerful government spokesmen added, "we offer premium ferry services! Purchase your guaranteed-safe passage today!"
The sales pitch worked. Adventurers, historians, and thrill-seekers descended upon the final island in droves, transforming Roger's mythical endpoint into a crowded tourist trap.
All the valuable things on the island had already been taken away by Sephiroth, leaving not even a single hair. The promised treasures amounted to empty vaults and disappointed shrugs.
As word spread, the pilgrimage slowed to a trickle. Roger's dream became a punchline, the One Piece a cautionary tale about arriving late.
And so, without fanfare or final battle, the Great Pirate Era exhaled its last breath.